


Colors

by curiositykilled



Series: Being Frostiron in an Avengers World [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Panic Attacks, Shapeshifter Loki, Trauma, brief references to mythology, so brief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-01
Updated: 2013-10-01
Packaged: 2017-12-28 02:37:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/986673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curiositykilled/pseuds/curiositykilled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony runs into his girlfriend in an old enemy's body</p>
            </blockquote>





	Colors

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [5 People Who Thought Loki Was Gay and One Who Knew Otherwise](https://archiveofourown.org/works/495868) by [startrekfanwriter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/startrekfanwriter/pseuds/startrekfanwriter). 



Leaning back against the elevator wall, Tony couldn't help scowling vaguely at the doors. He'd recently updated all elevators to have a holographic screen projector built in - let no one ever say that the resident scientists at Stark Tower wasted even a millisecond - but the frame still seemed a little off. JARVIS had assured him that they were functioning properly, but to Tony, the interactive projections were still lacking their usual intuitivity. Bruce had chuckled at Tony's botherment and said something like 'anal,' but that had sent Tony's mind in all the wrong directions, and he hadn't really come up with a solution.

"J, send the schematics for this over to my Eighty-Eight, will you?" he asked as the ride dinged to a halt.

Aside from his whole clean energy project, Tony had been trying to steer Stark Industries into some cleaner commercial projects - namely computers, tablets and phones that didn't require materials from conflict zones like the Congo. Seeing as Jobs had already taken most the catchy names and Tony was anything but a rip-off, the company had chosen rather simple, if obscure, names: there was the SI 88 tablet, the SI Graham phone and the SI J computer. Loki - before Tony knew - had laughed and asked if knowledge of tech history was a prerequisite for buying one.

 _Which_ \- Tony halted abruptly as he stepped into the lounge area of his penthouse. There, in his girlfriend's favorite reading spot, reclined a very male, very _Loki_ god of Mischief. Cheekbones sharp enough to cut arched over tight cheeks that were just a little less gaunt, lunatic-thin than the last time Tony'd seen this form, and familiar green eyes were narrowed slightly as the god read on, completely heedless of Tony's entrance. Memories of shattering glass and silver and empty void blacknotblacktoodark _Pepper,Pepperwhywon'tyouans-_

"Oh. Shit."

By the time Tony had resurfaced - kneeling, somehow, with his breath coming hard and aching against the heavy cylinder of the arc reactor - Loki was all feminine curves and long black hair brushed roughly out of her face, but the loose men's t-shirt remained as well as the hint of guilt. Her hands were gentle but firm on Tony's shoulders, and they felt nothing like being lifted effortlessly and lobbed through a top-floor window. They felt like safety.

Tony barked a short, raw laugh at the irony.

"Tony?" she queried in a tone the same as her hands' grip, "Are you with me?"

"Shift back," he replied.

Confusion creased her pale, smooth brow.

"Shift back," he repeated.

"Tony, I'm not sure tha-" she protested.

"I'm not going to be fucking scared of my girlfriend," he snapped.

Loki didn't say anything more, but Tony could see the flicker of disapproval in her eyes. He'd gotten good at recognizing that in everyone's faces. The other emotion that flitted through was too fast to read.

She shifted gradually, watching him with that strange unreadability that he hated. Her hands spread slightly, the palms still thin but broader and longer, and then he realized that her shoulders were hunched slightly and she was still way too tall. Then she was gone and his nightmares' favorite fodder was kneeling before him with worry in his eyes. But the eyes - they at least were the same guarded green caught halfway between flint and fire. Green was something he could handle: green & gold, the color of Loki in the morning before her guards came up, of how brightly her eyes flared jade when an idea struck her. Green was good. _Just focus on the eyes, Tony. This is Loki. Your girlfriend - lover - ex-subjug- okay that's not helping._

"Okay," Tony breathed.

Things had been tense between them for the past week; after the initial five am revelation, Loki had held herself with a certain guarded wariness, and Tony had been brusquer, rougher in his manners. Maybe it was inevitable that they run into the crux of their problem head first. Loki paused a moment, reading something in the set of Tony's shoulders or the slant of his eyes, before rising slowly and offering his hand to assist Tony. The inventor used the ground instead.

“So, green, huh? What’s with you and Thor’s color coding?” he asked after a moment.

The silence had begun to wind tight as chains around them, straining flesh and pressing just lightly enough not to burst, and Tony had never done well with any kind of restraints.

“Choosing your color is part of an Aesir’s first nameday,” Loki replied.

“Uh-huh. And you and Thor just wanted to be Christmas-themed?” Tony queried, finding his way to a chair.

Loki followed after a moment, settling down back on the couch he’d just vacated. There was a small silence as he leaned back into the leather, abstraction briefly visible on his face. Coming to some conclusion, though, he began.

“Thor, being the elder brother, chose red first. As for the green,” he paused, laughing softly, “it’s a bit embarrassing.”

Quirking an eyebrow at this rueful admission, Tony nodded to encourage the god on but didn’t add anything. His tablet was the only thing keeping his hand from shaking. _Goddammit, this is pathetic._

“I originally wanted pink.”

A strangled noise of surprise and disbelief choked on its way out of Tony’s throat, and his hands froze on the tablet.

“Pink?!” he finally managed, in what was most definitely not a squeak.

A faint, wry grin twerked the corner of the trickster’s lips, causing light to reflect off faint white scars that Tony hadn’t noticed before.

“I thought it fitting as the brother of red and the color of sunsets,” he explained with a low chuckle.

His voice was low and smooth, pitched deeper than his female form but lacking none of its easy captivation. _Right. Silvertongue._ Tony reminded himself, trying to ignore the way the god’s voice made every electron in his body pause. It wasn’t at all the same one put to the use of getting Tony into bed - which was captivating in a whole different, wonderful way - but there was a similarity in how every bit of Tony _listened_.

“I can’t see anyone from Asgard liking pink,” Tony admitted, struggling to imagine Loki in a pink version of the armor he’d worn two years ago. It just didn’t work, “much less you.”

“Neither could my mother or the tailor,” Loki agreed, “They thought green a bit more fitting. Well, Frigga did. The tailor thought pink an accurate choice.”

His voice had darkened there, twisted into something a little more bitter but no less catching. _Bad memories there, then._

“What happened?” Tony couldn’t help asking, the elevator upgrade entirely forgotten.

“He spread slander that I was argr, so I slept with his son and impregnated his wife," Loki answered smugly.

For a moment, Tony's brain was caught between the two parts stuck on _'impregnated'? Who the hell even says that?_ and just how inordinately _wrong_ that story was. Sure, he knew Loki was messed up, but fucking a guy and then knocking up his mom? That was a whole different scope of wrong. Then, finally, he noticed the exasperated sigh of his brain's third part, which just happened to sound a lot like Loki, and he understood.

The god was watching him with hooded, calculating eyes, and Tony realized he'd probably been gaping for too long. Not that Loki would probably care - that was the whole point, right?

"Argr's like...gay?" he asked, wincing at how brutally he'd butchered the word.

For once, Loki's startle was genuine. Surprise and a hint of confusion brushed over his face before understanding and a frown swept them away.

"It...it is more akin to worthless - women are given far more value than an argr man. To be called argr is worse than anything - except," again his voice darkened and a jagged humor colored his tone, "of course, to be compared to a jotun."

Part of Tony automatically sought out an explanation for that last word, but contrary to popular belief, Tony did have self-preservation instincts. They'd kicked in about the same time Loki's voice had twisted itself into a sick blend of loathing and deprecation. He'd rarely heard that from his Loki's mouth, but the deep black with which it was laced was enough to turn him sharply away from any subject that brought it out. Taking that in stride, he hummed faintly and stretched his legs out onto the glass coffee table.

"So, that 'Whore of the Nine Realms' thing isn't too far off, is it?" he asked instead.

Loki laughed, a quiet sound of a green closer to black than gold, and settled back against the couch. Flicking his book languidly off the table with one hand, he glanced over the top with a smirk.

"Oh, but you wouldn't want to pay my fee," he purred - and oh, _there_ was that voice.

 _Oh, are you wrong about that,_ Tony's libido sang back. Some part of him realized that he should be concerned that Loki could trigger a panic attack and then, ten minutes later, turn Tony on so completely, but it was quickly shut down. If there had been a time to be worried, it probably would have been back when JARVIS first scanned her, but clearly, neither that nor realizing she was Loki had been enough. This was hardly a game-changer.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, while I generally just use gender/sexually fluid!Loki, I absolutely love startrekfanwriter's fic, and this part just cracked me up because it's so in touch with what younger kids think. Anyway, I just had to throw it in here somewhere.
> 
> As for the Stark tech names, I always see like StarkPad and crap, and maybe that's what they're called in the comics (I have read a grand total of four series and two of those were DC, so~), but it just bugs me. Theoretically, Steve Jobs exists in the MCU, and like hell would Tony copy anyone. So, obscure/random-as-hell names!
> 
> 1888 - the year the first predecessor of the tablet was created by Elisha Gray
> 
> Graham - Alexander Graham Bell, telephone-patent-thief 
> 
> J - JARVIS. Yes, I was totally out of ideas.
> 
> Oh, because this doesn't explain itself very well, Loki tells that story to both admit his own vulnerability and remind Tony that he is Loki and thus, chaotic/vindictive/possibly insane


End file.
